Analysis: Some Leaks Are More Illegal Than Others

By Conor Friedersdorf

June 13, 2013

As critics of Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker, vilify him for breaking the law and his promise to never reveal classified information, the press critic Jack Shafer adds vital and astonishingly unremarked upon context: the Obama Administration leaks highly classified information all the time.

So did the Bush Administration.

Does the rule of law demand that leaks of highly classified information be prosecuted? If so, John Brennan and many other current and former national security officials had better be given orange jumpsuits. They weren't even leaking to alert Americans to behavior that they found immoral. Often times, the U.S. national security establishment leaks to exploit a political advantage.